B-Debate and CREAL debate about water pollution and public health

The 21st and 22nd May the CREAL (Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology), with funding from the European Science Foundation and the collaboration of B-Debate, held a discussion on strategies and future epidemiological policies in the field of water pollution and health. This discussion was led by Dr. Cristina Villanueva, head of the Water Pollution program at CREAL.

In addition, in discussions were involved multidisciplinary professionals and researchers specialized in different fields, including analytical chemistry, environmental science, toxicology, molecular biology and epidemiology, as well as representatives from industry and regulators bodies. According to Dr. Villanueva, this workshop set priorities for future research on health effects due to chemical contaminants of drinking water.

The 27 specialized researchers worldwide, who have attended, were aware that through drinking water, the population is exposed to a wide variety of chemical substances, and current analysis methods to assess toxicity and potential impact on human health are neither sufficiently developed nor precise. To date, the toxicity and carcinogenic qualities in humans of only a small number of compounds have been studied. Most toxicity studies analyze the effects individually and don’t look at the combined effects upon interaction. We must also consider that the effects of many contaminants have been studied in animals, and not humans, meaning that only a small number of drinking-water contaminants are included in regulatory laws

The safety and availability of drinking water are important issues in public health that concern to European authorities. Water is a limited natural resource -drinking water is just a small fraction of the total-, and, moreover, is under great pressure, due to both growing demand and climate change, which doesn’t improve availability, particularly in countries in southern Europe and the Mediterranean.

•;Program